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Last View of England

I got to the airport and was confused about where I was supposed to put my very ordinarily sized ‘oversized’ bag – so I guessed and gave it to some random guy standing in an appropriate looking room. There were several oversized baggage signs all pointing to different places and unfortunately the guy didn’t seem to speak English and so couldn’t seem to confirm it was the correct room. Anyway after about an hour of queuing to hand in my luggage I said goodbye to my friend and went through security.

The flight took about 7 hours and wasn’t too bad. I arrived at the airport a bit outside Montreal and as I was going to customs I saw one of my university friends who must have been on the same plane – he was studying abroad too. It was definitely relaxing to see a familiar face so soon. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Canada didn’t care if we were studying or not as long as we got out within 6 months – goodbye immigration office and a 4 hour queue!

Air Transat misplaced my bag along with several others people’s – there was a big queue at the Air Transat airline desk. I was worried we had all put them in the wrong room. It turned out they had actually put our bags with the normal bags after they had decided they weren’t ‘oversized’ after all. First heart attack survived!

Stepping out the airport the first thing I noticed was how hot it was outside! Montreal was supposed to be the land of snow but we had plenty of lovely weather before we saw even an angry looking cloud. In the guide book it said that there was a relatively cheap bus to the city centre but we were excited and didn’t want to lug our stuff around everywhere so we got a cab to the hostel where we were staying. We checked in and met our roommates. I met a French guy and quickly discovered this was good as English is considered the rude language in Montreal even though the city is essentially bilingual. Indeed we had been meet with a few looks when we first arrived at the desk although to be fair most of the other people checking in also spoke English but I guess maybe that was the problem!

HI Montreal

We spent some time in the big lounge / foyer and met quite a few others on similar adventures as they checked in. Many of those fellow hostellers came with us that night when we went on a tour of the pubs which the staff organised. The hostel was called HI Montreal (pictured below) and I think it was a fantastic place for meeting people and generally in quite a good location (even though it was a long way from McGill University there was a metro station just round the corner so getting around was not too difficult). In fact the tour began with a metro trip – we descended the three huge flights of stairs to the metro along with about 3o others. I met an Australian and a German who we spent most of the rest of the evening with. Despite the massive number of people at the start it seemed we were the only ones who ended up walking home at 5:30 in the morning after the metro had closed!

The first day was definitely exciting and I met many people as I had hoped to. Meeting people while studying abroad is definitely important because your new friends are what make it so fun and interesting so I think it’s great to be friendly whenever possible. Montreal seemed like a nice city too – the only bad thing being the worrying number of homeless people we saw on the streets.  When we got back to the hostel I was completely exhausted I tried to get some sleep but before long I was up again and ready to explore …

Cambridge is an historic city in the South East of England.  For most people it is impossible to consider Cambridge, the city, without also considering Cambridge, the university.  The university is now over 800 years old and made up of over 30 colleges littered around the city centre and along the river.  The city and university have grown together so wherever you go you will see the unmistakable grand college buildings and perfectly trimmed lawns of the greenest grass (forbidden land for the mere mortal students!).

King's Parade

Why study at Cambridge?  Other than the obvious academic benefits of studying at a highly prestigious university, Cambridge is a forward thinking international community surrounded by a beautiful city full of sights to see and activities to do.  There are endless grand, historic buildings to visit (most notably King’s College Chapel), the university departments are full of museums, there are hundreds of student societies to join, as well as punting and rowing to try out, and if you get bored of all this then London isn’t too far away either.  Day sightseeing trips to London are easily planned as there are frequent trains which take as little as 45 minutes.

King's College in the Snow

If you are used to large modern cities Cambridge is likely to be an interesting change.  It is a small city made of a mixture of ancient and modern buildings where traffic jams tend to consist of cyclists rather than cars!  The city centre is very old and the streets cannot hold the number of cars you see on most city streets, so only buses and taxis may enter the city centre.  The vast majority of students travel everywhere by bicycle as this is the quickest and easiest form of transport.  Also this is a convenient way to keep fit and of course, is eco-friendly.

The university manages to maintain its traditional British heritage while modernising its departments and becoming more internationally diverse, this provides a wonderful environment for international students to get a flavour of British culture while at the same time giving them the chance to meet people from all over the world.  There are many student societies of international themes so combined with the University International Office there is no shortage of advice.  There are also plenty of things to do in your spare time as the university has a vast choice of societies, ranging from amateur dramatics clubs to wine societies to Frisbee clubs.  The colleges and societies organise countless events so there is always something happening whether it’s theatre productions, concerts, balls, debates or society lectures.  Cambridge also offers schemes for its own students to see more of the world, for example the Cambridge-MIT exchange and the Erasmus Programme, which encourages student mobility within Europe.

As well as endless societies there are loads of sports teams and martial arts classes to take part in, the best place to find out about these is probably the university and college fresher fairs (don’t worry if you’re not technically a fresher, there are more non-freshers than freshers most of the time because of all the free stuff!).  A sport which some people will tell you ‘you shouldn’t leave Cambridge without trying’ is rowing.  A good time to try this is in Michaelmas (first) term as there will be lots of novice boats for complete beginners.  However if you don’t think rowing is the thing for you then you must at least get on the river in a punt, there is a lot of fun to be had crashing into tourists and it’s a fantastic way to see the colleges along the river.  If you do get into rowing then you may want to pop down to London for the day to see The Boat Race (around the start of April), this tradition was started in 1829 when Cambridge challenged Oxford to a boat race on the Thames and has been going strong ever since.

Punting Under the Bridge of Sighs at St. John's

What will living and learning in the UK be like?  If you are used to American style university education you will find some key differences when studying in the UK.  Most noticeable of these is that while the courses are diverse they are so within the subject area.  So if you are going to be doing a 3 year course in Economics, for example, then almost everything you do academically in those 3 years will be Economics or strongly related to it.  The other important difference is that assessment in the UK is primarily exam based, with most exams in June and a smaller number (or none) in January.  There will also be coursework to complete but typically this will be worth 25% or less (but varies slightly between subjects).  If you are only intending to do one year abroad this change of routine might seem quite daunting but many universities will recognise this and will only require a pass for the year, with the specific marks not going towards your final grade (check with your university).

All the undergraduate students at Cambridge live in college or in college supplied accommodation.  Some of the older central colleges no longer have enough space in the city centre for all their students so some will live in college owned houses or ‘colonies’ (blocks of student rooms built away from the college), however all first year students will live in college.  This means that you won’t have to worry about finding somewhere to live as if the college accepts you it will allocate you a room, but it does mean that you will need a British bank account in order to pay your bills to college (either by cheque or debit/credit card). British bank accounts can typically be set up on arrival in Cambridge.

Inside Trinity College

While the rent for rooms does not cover food the colleges have Butteries (canteens) which serve meals to students which can be charged to their college accounts.  Most students eat a large proportion of their meals in their college Buttery as it is both convenient and a social event, plus kitchen facilities tend to be quite limited so you can prepare only basic meals yourself.  For eating out there is a good selection of Italian, Indian and Chinese restaurants and takeaways, I would recommend ASK (adjacent to John’s), Maharajah (Castle Street) and Dojo (Mill Lane near the Careers Service).

So in summary, Cambridge offers a first rate education combined with the opportunity to experience other cultures (the whole place is a superb example of British eccentricity) and to meet people from all over the world in a friendly international environment.

In Mandarin Chinese there are many words for the different members of your family, for example there are different words for your grandmother on your mother’s side and your grandmother on your father’s side.  This abundance of vocabulary to describe relations is strongly linked to the importance of family in Chinese tradition.  At this point you may be wondering why the post isn’t entitled ‘the effect of culture on language’ because surely the important of family preceded the words used to describe relatives. However suppose we now remove the Chinese words and replace them with the English words. On meeting your friend’s grandmother the knowledge of whether she is from the mother’s side or the father’s side no longer seems that important. What is the result of this change? You know (and care) less about the structure of your friend’s family. It is clear that over time this initially small change in attitudes could alter the culture of a country. Whether this would be for better or worse obviously depends on the particular context and the nature of the change.

Montreal is another particularly interesting example because it is bilingual with many citizens fluent in both French and English. It’s no secret that the French language is fighting a losing battle against the English language but if the people of Montreal didn’t speak French would there still be the same flair and creativity in the film festivals, cuisine, boutiques and street festivals? Every day use of a beautiful flowing language such as French surely has some effect on people’s mentality.

To investigate further let’s return to Mandarin which is logical to the extent of calling twelve ‘ten two’ and twenty ‘two ten’ and a plane a ‘flying machine’. The question “What is a plane?” suddenly seems rather redundant. The speaker or listener has a preconception that a ‘flying machine’ is a machine that flies even before they are told anything about it whereas the same isn’t true with the word ‘plane’. To illustrate the power of this idea imagine if instead a plane was called a ‘water machine’. If ridiculous names like this were frequent the mind would have to adapt to think illogically (or just not at all!) otherwise managing the language would be impossible. Just as a flowing imaginative language might be reflected in general creativity, a logical language may promote a general sense of reasoning. In this way language helps to shape our culture and mentality and as it evolves so does our culture.

I believe language has a huge effect on culture, influencing the way we think, socialise and learn. Before studying abroad, as a pragmatist, I had always thought that it would be best just to have one language for the whole world but now I’m not so sure because I feel something would be lost and I really enjoy the cultural variety I have seen. This is obviously just my personal opinion but I feel it’s definitely an interesting topic to have some fun considering on your travels.

If you would like your university or a university you have studied at to be featured then please email me at studyabroad.contact@gmail.com.

We begin with two prespectives on the University of Nottingham …

Home University: Japan Women’s University

Study abroad university: University of Nottingham

Location: The campus is very beautiful and has some nice buildings. The city is also good but a little bit inconvenient to get to.

Accommodation: I was in catered accommodation on the university campus. The environment was good and I found the 24 hour library was convenient for me! The only bad thing was I found the hall porters a bit lazy because it took a long time for me to get any answers from them when I had questions about the accommodation.

One of the Halls of Residence

How was the food? I didn’t like it… hahaha
Favourite place to eat out: Mooch (next to Willoughby Hall)

Did you have difficulties with the language? Yes

Best / most interesting thing about the culture: Clubbing (because Japanese don’t usually go to clubs)

What did you miss most about home? My family and Japanese food

Other places to visit: Oxford, Chester, York, Cambridge

Best part of experience in the UK: Making many friends

Worst part of experience in the UK: Arriving at my accommodation because at first I didn’t have any friends to eat with or talk to

Blossom

Did your time abroad change you in anyway? I got a wider view of the world

If you could study abroad again where would you go? Nottingham or Canada
What advice would you give to people thinking of studying abroad? The most important thing is to be positive thinking.

Trent Building

Home University: University of Nottingham

Country: UK (plus campuses in China and Malaysia)

Location: Nottingham has one of the best campuses in the UK complete with a large lake and plenty of grass and trees. The university is quite separate from the city which is a 20 minute bus ride away – students usually only travel into town when they want to go out at night or shop. Nottingham is approximately 2 hours from London by train.

The Campus Lake

Accommodation: Catered halls of residence are available and are mainly occupied by first year students and study abroad students. Self-catered accommodation is also available at Broadgate Park. Student houses in Lenton (about 25 minutes walk from campus) are popular with second and third year students (most degrees last for 3 years in the UK so there are few fourth year students).

Places to visit in Nottingham: ‘Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem’ – the oldest pub in England, Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, Nottingham Forest Football Club, Wollation Park, Nottingham Castle, National Watersports Centre, National Ice Centre.

Places to visit nearby: Sherwood forest – home of the legend outlaw Robin Hood, the Peak District – great for hill walking and camping.

Favourite student spot: The ‘Bag of Nails’ pub in Lenton.

Student Union Building

Favorite place to eat: Zizzis – on Kings Walk.

Best reason to study here: Nottingham is very international university attracting a wide range of people from all over the world and also has a beautiful campus.

One of the splendid things about living in a foreign country that is less talked about is the appreciation you find for everyday experiences such as trying different foods, taking a walk, window-shopping and having polite conversation with a new acquaintance.  The slightly strange environment and subtle differences make you that much more curious and allow you to relish the simple things.  I think this improved appreciation of the simple aspects of the world is one reason why people who have lived in a number of countries in their lives often have that particularly amicable calm about them.

Night Market in Taipei (a great place for trying out new food)

On the theme of a peaceful mindset I think the best piece of advice I can offer to anyone going to study abroad is to take opportunities as they come.  The wonderful thing about travelling somewhere new is that you don’t know what situations you will find yourself in or which people you will meet.  Whenever I’ve travelled somewhere with particular expectations I’ve always been disappointed but I’ve had many many amazing experiences which I never anticipated.  Going back to the topic of meeting people, for example, I went abroad worried about how I was going to find accommodation but on arrival I headed to hostel and met more than 30  other foreign students and one of my future housemates and then had a fantatic night in the city.

There is clearly an element of excitment to living in a new place and that gives you a fantastic feeling of energy and adventure and a great determination to experience something new which often stays with people even after they return.  While I was abroad I found that I managed to get involved in far more than I ever would at my home university despite the fact that the courses I took were quite demanding (if you’re interested in what I got up to keep an eye out in the coming weeks for new posts accounting my time abroad).

Studying abroad is an excellent opportunity to gain the benefits of properly appreciating another country and its culture.   The citizens of Montreal speak both French and English (almost interchangeably!) which might seem convenient yet somewhat unnecessary to a brief visitor.  However, when you spend longer in Montreal, you begin to understand how important the languages are in shaping the city and its people.  Montreal is a fantastic place and it simply wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t bilingual (see my post about the effect of language on culture (coming soon) if you too find this subject very intriguing).  In addition to language, there are many ideas, philosophies, systems and social customs which can be observed immediately but may take months or even years to fully understand.

Montreal from Mont Royal

It is important, interesting, fulfilling and enlightening to learn about people, culture and the world but of course the reason that students are, almost without exception, outrageously enthusiastic about their time abroad is that it is also absolutely amazingly fun! So if you’re going to study abroad soon keep an open-mind and have the best time of your life!